Advertisement
Published: August 27th 2010
View from the window of my room
on the old city with the Dome of the RockIt’s already been more than one month since I left the Netherlands. Even though I was very much looking forward to studying in Israel, leaving was hard. Most of all of course because I had to say goodbye to my boyfriend Markus, but also because during the last three years I got very attached to living in the Netherlands.
Before starting the Ulpan (Modern Hebrew language course) in Jerusalem, I made a one week long stopover in Budapest (luckily, Malév is one of the cheapest airlines for getting from Amsterdam to Tel Aviv) in order to visit friends, to meet my sister Mirjam who came for a few days, and to brush up on my rusty Hungarian. After the first hour, which Mirjam and I spent trying to find our way through the night bus system in order to get from the airport to town, it felt like coming home. A few things had changed of course since my last (very short) visit two years ago, but all in all Budapest was still the same. I spent a great week in Budapest and it was very nice to be with Mirjam and my friends, some of which I hadn’t seen
for two years. Even though meeting people was of course the most important thing, I still managed to study some Hungarian and by the end of the week I felt that I had made up for part of what I had forgotten during the last five years. I only regretted that I couldn't take any palinka with me, but of course I already had way too much luggage and I was lucky that the hand luggage compartment in the plane didn't break (I heard they're not that strong)...
On August 1 I arrived in Israel, after an exhausting four hour delay in Budapest (instead of at 12 pm we left Budapest at 4 am). But thanks to the delay I could directly continue to Jerusalem to register at the university. The registration was well organized but took quite a long time and by the time I got to the dorms it was afternoon. The day after in the morning I received a message from the mom of my host family I had stayed with six years ago, saying that they were worried and urging me to go to the university immediately. I was confused, as I had written her
a message the day before when I sat in the Sherut (a shared taxi) on the way to the university, telling her that I had arrived and that I was on the way to the university. Other friends also tried to reach me by sending me emails and Facebook messages, which I didn’t see because I didn’t have internet access. Eventually some friends called and told me that they were really worried because someone at the university, a friend of a friend, whom I should have gone to see during registration, called that friend in the evening of August 1 and told him that I hadn’t arrived. This friend informed other friends and my host family who called the police. I was really surprised and a bit embarrassed when I heard the story, but I really hadn’t been able to meet that woman at the university the day I registered, because when I went to her office there were a lot of people who wanted to see her, so I decided to go there again the next day. I would never have imagined that it could have such far-reaching consequences and I still don’t quite understand how it happened. Apparently
the woman working at the university couldn’t find me in the system even though I had filled out every single form (and there were many) when registering…
The dorms I live in are close to the part of the university on Mount Scopus where I'm studying. They were built only about three years ago, next to some older dorms. I live in an apartment with 5 rooms with shared kitchen and bathrooms on the 8th floor, on the edge of the compound and next to a street with cars constantly racing down the street, very often being chased by police (I wouldn’t care if it weren't for the sirens). Right on the other side of the street is a helicopter landing place for the Hadassah Hospital and every night at about 4.30 am I get woken up by the call for prayer from the mosque of a nearby Arab village. In short, it’s not a very quiet place but the fact that the apartment is on the 8th floor helps and as compensation my room has a very nice view of the city centre (see pictures).
When I arrived at the beginning of August, I ended up with three American and one German girl in a flat, all of which were very nice. However, I didn’t come to Israel in order to be surrounded only by international students, so after a few days I requested to change rooms and move to an apartment with Israeli students. I got five options to choose from but unfortunately all students I talked to were about to leave and three apartments were apparently already empty. Therefore I chose the one where I had ended up talking to a very nice Israeli girl for two hours, even though originally I just wanted to know who was living in that apartment. Besides, there was internet (my international flatmates and I were struggling for two whole weeks until they finally got internet, which was by the time I moved to my new room!). Yesterday the Israeli left and now I’m living with two also very nice Korean guys who know Hebrew (both are on a higher level than me), but I find it difficult to understand them because of their accent. One of them is leaving in September and I really hope that I will get some Israeli flatmates!
Until now I haven’t done any sightseeing, partly because I’ve seen most of it at least once, partly because there simply was no time. The first few weeks were very stressful because of all the practical things I had to organize and the amount of homework we have for the Ulpan. Besides, one weekend we had only one day off and one week ago I spent the whole weekend in the North visiting friends. I think I wrote enough for now, I’ll write more about my trip to the North, the university, classes and so on another time. I’d be really happy to hear from you and I'd love to know what you’re up to, please keep in touch!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.075s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 5; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0449s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
claudia Lenzi
non-member comment
kuuul
wooow, das tönt jo aus mega spannend!!! Fingi meeega kuul, dassde ne Blog machsch!!! I dänke ou mega viu a üsi Zit z Amsterdam. Es isch sooo schön gsi! I dräie im Fau grad e Houptroue imne ZDF Fium! Bi mega busy und ungloublech glücklech. Itz louft's würklech!!! Miss iuuu und enjoy Israel...